Gambling
Related Essays and Reports by Andrew W Scott

World
Series of Poker Main Event... Report number 5

Las
Vegas, Nevada, USA

July
13th 2007

Day
3: Thursday 12 July
Finally the split days are over, and the entire field
can play as one. Of the 6,358 starters, only 797 remained
at the start of day 3. They included the following
Australians, with the place they are based in, if
known:

At
the start of day 3 there were six former winners still
in the hunt: Robert Varkonyi (2002), Carlos Mortensen
(2001), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (2000), Scotty
Nguyen (1998), Huck Seed (1996) and Berry Johnston
(1986). John Strzemp was runner up to the late Stu
Ungar in 1997. Todd and Pamela Brunson are the son
and daughter of poker living legend Doyle Brunson,
who won back-to-back victories in 1976 and 1977. Bill
Baxter is widely know as the man who backed Stu Ungar
when Ungar won in 1980, 1981 and 1997. Tobey Maguire
is the actor that played Spiderman in the recent movies
of the same name. Sully Erna is the lead singer for
Godsmack. Gualter Salles is a Brazilian racecar driver.

Takashi
Takii owes his tournament life to incredible luck
on day 1. He held a pocket pair of 8s to Mike Panzarella’s
pocket pair of Aces. The flop (the first three cards
of the five card board) came with an Ace giving Panzarella
three of a kind, otherwise known as a set, of Aces,
an extremely powerful hand. But the turn (the fourth
card) came 8 and the river (the fifth, and final,
card) also came 8 to give Takii a miracle four of
a kind, and a win on the hand. The odds of those two
perfect cards coming like that were 902 to 1.

Many
of the 797 starters were desperate to hold on to make
it to the top 621 positions, which share the total
prize money of US$59,784,954. The
day started at 12:12pm, at the eleventh level, with
blinds at 1,200/2,400 and a 300 ante. Chris "Jesus"
Ferguson was eliminated at 1pm, when his Ace-5 suited
lost to William Childs’ pair of Queens when the board
helped neither player.

Hand-for-hand
play is one of the most exciting yet dreaded periods
of any major poker tournament. Hand-for-hand play
occurs so that the so-called "bubble" can
be correctly determined. The bubble represents all
players in the money, in the case of this year’s tournament
the bubble comprised 621 players, the so-called "bubble
boy" being the 622nd ranked player in the tournament,
the highest placed finisher who doesn’t receive any
money. Once the tournament gets down to about 10 players
away from the bubble, each table begins each hand
simultaneously, with no table beginning the following
hand until the first hand has been completed on all
tables. With approximately 70 tables in play, hand
for hand is a logistical nightmare, excruciatingly
slow as each hand takes as long as the longest hand
of all tables for that particular hand. The long and
laborious process of hand-for-hand play began at 3:50pm,
and the bubble finally burst at 5:45pm, almost two
hours later. In those two hours, only fifteen hands
were played, an average of eight minutes a hand.

This
is a terrifying period for the short-stacked players,
who are desperately praying that other players around
them will bust out. Some of these short stacked players
have just a few chips, perhaps only enough to pay
one blind or a few hands of antes. Some players even
sheepishly admit to folding the best possible hand,
a pair of Aces, just to remain alive in the tournament.
For the big stacks, this is a time that they can add
to their chips considerably, by bullying the small
stacks, who have every reason to fold and give up
their blinds and antes.

When
the bubble burst, an enormous cheer erupted across
the Amazon room, because those remaining had made
the money, all now guaranteed a payout of at least
US$20,320. The unfortunate bubble boy was Mr John
Sigan, from Strongsville, Ohio, who finished in 622nd
place and received nothing for his two and a half
days of poker. Once the bubble burst, there was a
rush of all-in bets from short stacks and many eliminations
quickly ensued. At 7:05pm Tony Hachem, brother of
2005 champ Aussie Joe Hachem, was eliminated when
his pocket jacks lost to 6-7 of clubs when the board
came 10c-8c-2d-9h-3h, giving his opponent Jon Kalmar
a straight. Tony finished in 552nd place. Australian
Angela Giannino finished 578th. All players finishing
between 550th and 621st received prize money of US$20,320.

As
the day ground into night and more and more players
busted out, the tension rose as it became clear the
players were getting closer to the big money. One
player, upon getting drawn out upon on the turn, slammed
his fists into the table causing chips to jump. Once
the river card hit and he knew he was busted, he proceeded
to lift the entire table off the ground and sent chips
and cards flying. The other players managed to scoop
their chips up and everything was put back in order.
The player in question was escorted from the building
by security, and I am sure we will not see him again
for the rest of this tournament, and he may even be
refused entry to future tournaments based upon his
ungentlemanly performance.

After
the 550th placed finisher busted out, the prize money
kicked up from US$20,320 to US$25,101. At 9:45pm Todd
Brunson busted out with pocket Queens against Ace-Queen,
when the board came 9-7-5-A-2. He finished 459th.
His sister Pamela ran over and teased him, calling
out "last Brunson standing!", as their father,
poker legend Doyle Brunson had busted out on day 1.

At
10:30pm Nasser Hamedani needed medical assistance.
Paramedics took him to the hospital for a suspected
heart attack, or possibly suffering a panic or anxiety
attack. He had a little over 100,000 in tournament
chips at the time, but his empty stack was slowly
blinding away while he was at the hospital and his
empty chair finished the day with 31,000 in chips,
the smallest chip stack of any player left alive at
that time. Could he return from hospital tomorrow
for what what would surely be a miraculous victory?

Everyone
who placed between 478th and 549th received US$25,101,
including Australian poker legend Leo Boxell who placed
508th. From the 477th finisher the prize money kicked
up to US$29,883, which is the amount Sydneysider Sam
Khouiss picked up when he was eliminated in 422nd
place. From the 414th place, the prizemoney increased
yet again to US$34,664, and Aussie Nicholas Nicolaou
just scraped into this high level of prize money,
finishing 412th.

As
the prize money continued to escalate the room became
noticeably more tense. At 11:30pm, the fifteenth level
began, with blinds of 3,000/6,000 and a 1,000 ante.
At that time there were 399 players remaining. 1997
runner-up John Strzemp finished in 379th place, picking
up US$34,664. At 12:15am, the last surviving member
of the Brunson clan, Pamela Brunson, was eliminated
in 364th place, receiving US$39,445, as the prize
money had escalated to this new amount from the 376th
placed finisher. Pamela had pocket Queens, but was
beaten by Ace-Jack when the board came A-5-4-6-2.

During
the day other Australians to bust out without cashing
any prize money were Dion Fotopoulos, Julian Powell
and Tim Duckworth, all from Melbourne. Only two Australians
remained alive at the end of day, Sydneysider Gary
Benson and Kit Manoel from Adelaide. Play finished
for the day at 12:30am, half-way through the fifteenth
level, with 337 players remaining alive. There were
only about five women left in the field including
Mimi Tran, Amanda Baker, and Maria Ho.